The use of art and architecture to develop practical solutions to economic and ecological crises.

What if art holds the solution to the unfolding ecological and economic crises of our time? For more than forty-five years, Peter Fend has argued that art premonitions material culture, therefore the means of production, ensuing changes in social relations. Hence, in his view, works by Marcel Duchamp, Carolee Schneemann, Mary Beth Edelson, Paul Sharits, and others, can prefigure ecological restoration and cohabitation. In the late 1970s, artists in New York initiated teams--first Colab, The Offices, and later Ocean Earth and Space Force--to move from critique into effecting real-world change. Initiatives came from Jenny Holzer, Coleen Fitzgibbon, Taro Suzuki, Joan Waltemath, and Eve Vaterlaus, among others, who linked up with scientists to produce reports and analyses with satellite imagery for news media.

Africa-Arctic Flyway: Physiocratic States gathers documents of Peter Fend's efforts through Ocean Earth for a planet organized according to hydrology--water basins--rather than national and colonial borders. It lays out tools and technologies derived from art, architecture, and science to replace fossil fuels, dams, nuclear industry, and industrial farming. The ensuing proposal for governance builds on what is identified as the first school of economic thought: physiocracy. Here, via satellite-aided eco-taxation, governance pursues an increase in the numbers of fish, marine mammals, migratory birds, and insects. For instance, ideas from Earth art are applied to restoring wetlands and flyways in three swaths--the Americas, East Asia, and Eurafrica--converging on the Arctic. This book focuses on the Eur­africa flyway and surveys four decades of work. It asks, "How do we go from visual art to reality?" Fend answers: "Through architecture."
About the Author: American artist Peter Fend founded the Ocean Earth Construction and Development Corporation ("OCEAN EARTH") in 1980, a legally incorporated successor to an artist venture initiated in 1979 to deliver art ideas and practices to real-world clients. The firm launched its worldwide business with a 1982 show at The Kitchen, NY called "Art of the State." After six years, Western governments shut its operations down. Since then, Fend has presented multidisciplinary projects at documenta in Kassel and biennials in Beijing, Yinchuan, Osaka, Venice, Liverpool, and Sharjah, all toward practical solutions to economic and ecological crises.

Elisa R. Linn is an exhibition maker, writer, educator, and graduate of the Whitney Independent Study Program. In her practice, she is concerned with politics of self-organization, representation, and collectivity in art and exhibition-making.

Lennart Wolff conceptualizes, organizes, and produces exhibitions, texts, architectural designs, and objects in shifting collaborative constellations, among them the collective KM Temporaer with Linn. He graduated from the AA School of Architecture and is co-director of its Visiting School in Zurich.